Queensland Term Abroad

Lamington National Park

Lamington V — 15 October: Leaf Analysis

One of our field projects at Lamington involved a census of leaves on the forest floor. Our goal was to estimate the number of tree species in the forest, an important piece of ecological information. If you have contemplated rain forests, you'll know this sort of exercise isn't possible in most tropical areas because many trees produce similar leaves and species of tree canÕt be distinguished by leaves alone. However, the relatively few species in this forest and their very long evolutionary histories in Australia make it possibleÑwith a little practiceÑto distinguish most of the canopy trees by their leaves. Besides telling us something about Lamington, this exercise was an excellent warm-up for a project involving fossil leaves that we'll be doing in New Zealand. Thanks to Carla Delucia for several pictures.